Open Letter to:

Nancy Pelosi, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, and Geraldine Ferraro
Participants, 2/18/2002 National Public Radio
Talk of the Nation Broadcast "Women in Power"
cc. Lynn Neary, Victoria Budson
Many others via email and internet

Re: Urgent Concern about NPR's and Program Participants
Talk of the Nation Broadcast of 2/18/2002, "Women in Power";
Suggested Prompt and Follow-Up Radio Broadcast
Apology, Explanation and Improved Presentation in April, as we Approach EarthDay

This is an urgent letter of shock and concern regarding your presentations, as women who we had once trusted and admired and hope to do so again soon despite your embarrassing and sadly limited performance, on a broadcast of 2/18/2002 entitled Women in Power. This letter is highly critical, but we hope it may also be reinspiring and reempowering to you all. It is our friendly but deeply concerned and in fact, appalled, suggestion/advisement that you immediately review the broadcast, and all your serious omissions and misemphases related to gender and governmental power, with intention to a follow-up program(s) as quickly as possible starting during the month of April and continuing into May, June and beyond.

March was importantly celebrated as Women's History Month so that it can remind us that is time for the US to transform itself, as other nations have done and are doing, toward an all herandhistory ongoing celebration, a more balanced human awareness and political reality, of the gender inclusive human story that should always exist in any and every month, and is especially important for women, and men "in power". So, this April and Spring must, and we believe will, mark the resurrection of wholeness of life in society and government, with the equal and mutual inclusion of women to aid men in the power of global brotherhood and sisterhood, of Love in our decisions, Men AND Women in Power and the Power of Love on Earth. Your words either help or endanger and delay that. Which will you prefer?

It is our conclusion that certain conceptual and factual glaring omissions, self-imposed limitations, unusual vagaries, half-truths and negligences that your 2/18/2002 program contained has dangerously miscommunicated political realities to the listening American and worldwide public on one of the most important topics for our nation and world, and perpetuating serious gaps in your other programming, as well. We ask that you graciously overcome these disservices with responsible, fully factual, public statements and radio broadcasts with information about women in power AND men in power and representative balance in power, that you can be truly proud of. We also respectfully ask that you and the other program participants post this letter, with your and your invited participants gracious and hereby requested responses to it, on the NPR website, the Women and Public Policy Website, and on any websites and Internet forums in which you participate.

Ms. Pelosi, Ms, Bailey Hutchinson, and Ms. Ferraro, you have always been especially beloved and until recently, trusted and heeded women. But now, we are deeply concerned by you and about you. You deserve to be heard on the air in such a way to bring your best feet, your best wisdom and humanity forward, instead of, and we are truly sorry to have to say this yet must, dangerously putting your feet in your partyfied mouths. We urge you to demand another opportunity to do far more good that you did on the 2/18 broadcast. That is, unless you have somehow indeed regressed and become unwilling to do so, in which case American and global women will likely conclude that US male-dominated politics corrupts and grinds down a very small set of women, who lower themselves to continually self-corrupt in gradualism, in small, token levels numbers below the generally accepted critical mass for life of at least one third gender balance in office.

Women who are few in number for decades and make such unstrategic and unfortunate omission on a major radio broadcast, can fairly and honestly be nationally and globally openly confronted for tokenizing and disempowering their greater spirit. Previous admirers and supporters must now hold you (along with several other major women in office and public life who are equally culpable for omitting relevant global facts from their broadcasts, appearances, speeches, and websites), accountable for misrepresenting and misleading American women and the American people on gender issues, and deliberately isolating themselves from the progress that has outpaced the US dramatically all over the world. And, more importantly, we must inspire you to dare, individually and collectively, to do better. To do better than you did in NPR's February broadcast, you will need 3 things to occur in a better broadcasts and public presentations in April and thereafter. Here are confrontive criticisms as well as constructive inspiration to honor yourselves and all of us by doing better:

1) Demonstrate Greater Live-in-the-Moment American her-historical Mutual and Respectful Memory and Context

You certainly had the potential for being on the track of living her-history when you commendably decided to participate in a broadcast on Women in Power on President's Day. The topic was a well-timed and well chosen irony in pinpointing that the US, unlike other nations and now many modern democracies, has rather inhumanly had no gender balance in executive leadership. Therefore, the topic could have been well used to announce and discuss a plan and timetable, (as French, other European, Indian, South African and so on women did in the mid and late 1990's while American women leaders failed to do so - yet) for gender and power in America's present and immediate future. This could and should have been presented as the next step for America, emerging directly out of the achievements of American women in the past.

Yet, not one of the you mentioned that the 2/18/2002 broadcast was the Monday after the Friday of Susan B. Anthony's Birthday (Feb. 15), a exemplar American and world class leader, who's birthdate is mysteriously not yet celebrated nationally. If you might have been alive enough in your broadcast moment in her-history to remember Susan well, the broadcast could have been therefore celebrated not only as a insightful memory for fratricidally war-embattled male Lincoln and Washington's Presidents' Days (President's embroiled in war instead of growthful conflict resolution in large part because the women of their times did not vote or participate in political power), but as an opportunity to remind the world that Susan B. Anthony, as a peacemaker and abolitionist of slavery as well, advocated women's equality not only in voting but in office holding, because she believed in the political necessity of women in power as equal to men, for freedom, human dignity and terror-free power for peace. It should have been said that past American history saw women like Anthony arrested and barred for seeking to vote and hold political office, so that America's pool of talent for peace-leading governments, Presidents and Vice-Presidents has still not been recovered from a process which has thus far denied American at least one half of its talent for representation and highest office-holding. (Not exactly an enlightened state of affairs in the past and a situation overripe and ready for dramatically better balance in the present and future.)

Also, the broadcast, falling during national Black History month, also gave you opportunity to highlight the importance of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and women and men as equals in all races and heritages in a nation of nations, in bringing forth the hope of universal and meaningful voting for any and every American. America is already a nation mingling many nations, races, and origins, The US needs to remember and retain connection and context with other homelands of origin on any Talk of the Nation, especially because we are also a global nation, and achievements, as well as our errors and omissions are now inherently also the Talk of the World. Yet you failed to remember any of this. Your omissions are extremely and significantly disturbing in failing to rise to the occasion of the broadcast, and so we invite and urge you to redeem these errors of American and fully human spirit, on a better broadcast in April and thereafter, as a months in a new Millennium of mutuality. That is, if you wish to be thought worth listening to with respect instead of engendering dismay, shock, worry about your humanity and human spirit and embarrassment, both domestically and abroad.

2. US women politicians need to accompany their appearances with quotes and call ins from women leaders from nations where gender representative fairness is further along than in the US. A long list is easily available. Women's style of leadership in power is connective, inherently unifying, global, and not limited to a within national context. Women that want to talk about their own nation but not about other nations are a contradiction to the feminine principle and responsibility of connection. Such isolationist focus detracts from possibilities of benefits of living in global 2002 and beyond which are so openly claimed for global money and alpha-male corporate extension, but omitted (by you) when talking global gender relationships in all nations. Such isolationist errors themselves insure that women candidates defeat both female and male voter interest and any legitimate and moral reason for their participation in public life in a world they see daily impacted by global events and entities. The world does not need female prima donnas in an exclusive isolationist club that defensively congratulates itself for minimal progress like 13% while ignoring the mechanisms of success used by women of other nations. It does not need narcissistic yet timid prima donnas who fails to inform American women of why so many women and good men around the world call 1/3 the gender critical mass for life, and 50-50 the now often achieved goal of real, actual representation and good government, as opposed to official stagnation, tokenism and game-playing. Several calls and quotes from Women Presidents and already successful gender activists in many other lands, should be lined up for the April shows on NPR, to give encouragement to the American women audience, and counteract global gender isolationism on the air. Otherwise, women in and outside of the US will declare you all political hack tokens of the most compromised and self-compromising variety - hardly models for any women and girls in the US or any country. But why condemn yourself to such sinful ommission and self-disempowerment? You are Woman; the female face of God in human form. Empower your own spirit. The mike, and the website is at your lips, and each word can transform millions of minds. You are Strong, You Are Invincible (not in Not in Male-Pattern Individualism, Not in Isolationism, but in Connection to the Whole), You Are Woman. Dare to do your best. Every time.

3. Women politicians on the air need a pool of willing men in politics willing to admit to the sad comparative national current truth about gender and power to American women and stop pandering to them. There are, we believe, at least a few men in politics or public life, who have the courage to lead American men as models of partnership and mutuality instead letting them drift and decay as models of irresponsibility and domination. Men who are like French gender parity law sponsor Jospin of France and the many men in government of gender balanced Scandinavia, and men of India, South Africa and many other nations of the world who have personally demanded gender balance for their nations because they support women like you. These are men who have already shared or sought shared power with women heads of state for decades, spoken forthrightly about the importance of doing so, and even more importantly, have insisted on a relational standard of gender in legislatures and other offices above the critical mass for change of at least no less than 1/3 moving toward full representation at 50-50. Couldn't women of your stature have contacted one of these male leaders for women in power, and have them called in with an international remark? And, we believe there are many such men in America, perhaps Walter Mondale, Warren Beatty who openly called for a Woman President, Michael Moore, Ron Dellums, Ralph Nader, men who have endorsed women for executive office and equal representation now, including several major university professors, and others. Some may be outside of politics, or in Canada, - but can still be easily called upon as resources by women and any decent men left in American politics, and should have been called upon to call in when women in politics like yourselves appear in the media. Unless you wish to be considered simultaneously as men-avoiding men-haters and co-dependent willing victim-hacks of US male-domination partyfied politics. Are you co-dependent victims of male dominators (or female narcissists content to look like big fish in a too small pond of women in office)in your parties? If that is your role now, then you are letting yourself become an embarrassment and earsore to a nation as literate and potentially growthful and capable as the people of US. And worse, your letting your own powerful soul be self-compromised and lost in the excuses of delay, and isolationist gradualism.

This is not a critique of you alone, (although only your lack of self-respect can keep you globally isolated and politically tokenized). The men officials of your parties NOT calling into the broadcast have embarassed themselves, as well. Are their American men in political parties advocating gender equality in government at the same level achieved in Europe, as Jospin echoed by Chirac has in France, and as many Presidents and Ministers serving women Presidents have already done in Scandinavia, Belgium, Spain, South Africa, and elsewhere? There certainly should be a chorus of US men in politics ready to speak, if they want their parties to have a political and societal future, so let them line up to accompany and call in to women such as Ms. Pelosi and Ms. Hutchinson in pointing out that US political parties can follow the gender balance lead of almost every political party in Europe, Congress Party in India, South Africa, many in China, and so on. If women politicians cannot find such men in their parties, let them say the problem out loud, so decent American men can encourage outmoded male models of dominance to move toward partnership.

Furthermore, women who vaguely just strive for "more" without any balance or relational goal are just repeating unigender "more", the hunger for power without understanding the anthropological aspects of power. Such a vague "more", with no timetable, and no living critical mass for % of women's representation, that can be applied to either gender equally, either produces little more than trickling gradualism or inadvertently terrifies men and women with the possibility of dominating-male-type women who seek dominance themselves instead of some concept of shared fairness and balance. These are the inescapable likely outcomes, both totally undesirable as well as impractical and unachievable, implied by the lack of any clear relational or balance concepts, the vague, inept and dangerous "more", discussed on your February show).

We know such more relational and balance-interested men do exist - Mr. Mondale, or his daughters and sons, or all, can accompany Ms. Ferraro in her next broadcast, and since Mondales and many of their homestate Minnesotans are of Nordic descent, could tell the American people about the gender standards and achievements of the Nordic countries on gender and democracy, with their relational standards of at least 30 or 40% of both genders. Mondale's from Minnesota could have assisted Ferraro to remind us that Minnesota officially celebrated Susan B. Anthony's 2/15 Friday birthday and would have mentioned it on the 2/18 Monday broadcast held on a President's days just after her birthday. Certainly women like Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and many others would have brought women and men of color like Frederick Douglass to the Presidency had they held the vote or office in their lifetimes as white men did, and this relational issue would have also been discussed. Why were there no women and pro-women men of color included as guests or guest callers in? You ignored past, present and future by omitting such people as Barbara Lee and her mentor, Ron Dellums, and former mentioning that Asian American Hawaiian Patsy Mink ran for President in several primaries when Ferraro did, as well. White women politicians who repeat this error in any broadcast do not sit well with most women and men in our country today, no matter what their race.

4. Try hard not to put your foot in your mouth and erode your support among women and people who voted for you:

Ms. Pelosi in particular shocked many millions of women and men who feel that affirmative principles are needed. Her self-eunuchizing pride in "not asking" to be voted for, at least in significant part, because she is a woman, showed her failure to understand why the female is a uniquely necessary gender, and also a failure to understand inclusive, affirmative and reparative fairness and balance, either nationally or in the global arena. It appears that affirmative action is a concept she and major women Democrats, (taking their marching orders from the masters and very few but narcissistic prima donna mistresses above, instead of the people who are their foundation) have willfully buried. It would also seem that her pride in the unique and very positive qualities of feminine physiology and experience have little or no value to Ms. Pelosi, nor does relational balance in group dynamics in making decisions that involve power. That concept appeared beyond her ability to comprehend or discuss despite the fact that countless men and women anthropologists, psychologists, political scientists, communication experts and sociologists have written whole libraries on these well-documented phenomena regarding groups, leadership and balance, particularly of gender. Her comments were directly out of sync with the very successful Manifesto of French women in politics, that united women across party lines and brought then into about 50% office in France now. The Manifesto is online at:

Ms. Pelosi seemed almost to wish to hide these realities from the public in her statements on 2/18, and we urge women and fair men to listen to her abandonment of any affirmative or balancing interest. Her statements on 2/18, unless responsibility corrected, do not inspire confidence in her as woman or a "whip" (the word itself is male-associated; women would likely call such a leader the "spark" or "guiding light") in a deeply distrusted Washington, and she does not appear willing to speak to realities in the US political scene compared to the progress occurring everywhere else. Her statements on the 2/18/2002 may even lose Ms. Pelosi much of the support she and her party once had; perhaps she will rethink her performance and do better in our proposed April broadcasts. She must decided whether she really wants to be a "whip" for progress, or just bear a title that barely disguises the fact that she may be just a wet wimpy noodle of tokenism and political hack-co-dependency.

Ms, Hutchinson also made a stunning example of foot in mouth when she 'referred' to the women leaders and presence of women in office of other nations. Her convenient and blithe, "Oh, you know who they are" suggested that she was avidly hoping to avoid mentioning who they are by name, and the names of the many nations where they are serving their legislatures and the world in 30,40 and 50% numbers. Since now scores of women have headed nations, great women like not only Hutchinson-compatible conservatives like Thatcher, the only woman leader any caller - were they screened? - mentioned by name) but Gandhi of India, Campbell of Canada, Meir of Israel, Aquino of the Phillipines, Halonen of Finland, Bhutto of Pakistan, Harlem of Norway, and the woman whose many syllabled name graces Indonesia, the world's fourth largest nations, were all conveniently forgotten along with many other current and recent executive and legislative leaders of France, Switzerland, Australia, Turkey. New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Lithuania, Bulgaria, Argentina, and many others. Ms. Hutchinson's knew full well that much of her audience did not yet know who or where these women are because the US dominant-male-dominated media has been hiding much of their stories. She apparently just didn't care enough about their achievements or inspirational value to American women and men who love women to mention them to an audience she knows full well has been information starved. Any more than any of the other guests. The kept silent about the women serving in 30-50% gender balanced legislatures in so many nations. They all just zipped up their lips before the microphones of Talk of a Global (or should we say, Global about Money but Isolationist about gender) Nation.

Mahatma Gandhi often quoted a famous concept: "History is a struggle between the love of power and the power of love". Shared mutual distribution of power between the genders, inclusive of races, and democratically so that every person's vote counts are the hallmark of democracy, which combines power into mutual concern, and allows it to express love in good, vibrant governance. Yet, in the last US election, the largest number of men and women's votes were disqualified by members of male-lead political parties under a section of the Constitution never ratified by most men or any woman in the US (people of color, people without property, and people who are female).

Since your appearances aired 4 days after the day of mutuality - Valentine's Day (born as a Saint's rebellious affirmation of marriage of women and men over the dictates of the Roman military) and 3 days after abolitionist-universal suffragist Susan B. Anthony's Birthday, it should have noted that the most recent election disqualified the votes of a greatest number of voting women, and men Americans, than gained the vote under the 14th and 19th Amendments, and even earlier Amendments that eliminated property requirements for males. Your political guests are members of parties that are facing the consequences, not just political, but - social, psychological and spiritual - of their white, dominant-male-skewed, women-at-a-token-level- beneath-critical-mass Senatorial and Congressional acceptance of an electoral college decision especially, since the League of Women Voters, which came into being with the 19th amendment, has throughout its history consistently joined with the majority of non-party leader Americans in seeking to abolish the truly party-serving electoral college, as have most black and good government organizations.

Shouldn't something about systems of voting disqualification and power have been mentioned in a program about women and power in a program called Talk of the Nation? Or, has talk of democracy also been silenced on Talk of the Nation? As the record low turnout in the primaries of California has already shown, elections in the US will likely remain moribund and face record public distrust until all parties address gender and racial representation issues in the manner that far less expensive but far higher turn out European and other nations have been addressing gender balance for many years and in some nations, decades, ahead of the US.)

We have attached a better format for your future media appearances, on NPR, starting in April. We have also attached some background resources, We urgently suggest you make more forthright use of your official websites, and additional personal websites if needed, to inform the American people about the gender balance legislation and public efforts in other nations and your personal efforts to cooperate with men and women in other lands to achieve women's living critical mass in government in every nations, including your own. If not, we will understand that you wish to hold official title, but to truly represent no one but yourselves, in token level that works to the coopting advantage of the dominant males who continue to corrupt a Nation that has become the Talk of Its Disenfranchised Own, and the World. Then you will have become those who love Power but have only token and always temporary power of might and domination, and less and less of the eternally triumphant Power of Love. Or, you can turn that around. The Power to dare to do Love is within you. Empower that now, or expect pity, shock or disdain from Those listening. The choice is yours. We would like to Talk well of you to every nation on Earth. Earthday is this year on 4/22/2002 - a number that jumps out at every woman and man to discuss the power of 2x2, the power of equality and mutuality as necessary for our Earth It is your public responsibility to help Earth Day in the US be a celebration of nature - human nature in balance with itself, in political gender balance.

As Women's "Herstory" Month and Too Many Past "History Months" of War and Terror Become Human Gender Mutuality Months, and Millennia of Peace,

Every Blessing,

Your Listeners Who Have Already Shared the Truth with Thousands on the Internet, and Care Enough About You to Encourage You to Reply With the Facts on the Air.and Far more Prominently on the Web and Internet.

cc.
Lynn Neary, Neal Conan, Juan Williams and Talk of the Nation Staff, NPR
Diane Rehm, NPR
Victoria Budson, Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard
Internet Newgroups on Women, Democracy, and Equality
Women Studies Mailing Lists in US and Worldwide
Selected gender balance activists, female and male worldwide

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